CHRISTMAS TREE.
310. This is a very curious and interesting kind of a tree. It is found, loaded with every variety of strange fruit, on tables, bare floors, or carpets. It has no roots, but is most wonderful for its yielding powers, though it bears only once a year, and that always on Christmas Eve. The last one that I saw was at Uncle Hiram Hatchet’s. Cousin Hannah thus describes it:
“At last, when none of us expected it, he (Uncle H.) threw open the folding doors, and let us into the little parlor. There was displayed the Christmas tree, in all its glory. Every little twig bore some present; dolls and doll furniture, pins, ear-rings, bracelets, slippers, watch-guards and purses, ships, windmills, and beautiful books, besides all sorts of fruits and bon-bons, and all blazing with light from the numberless candles that seemed to grow out of the branches.”
A tree that, without life or root,
Without a blossom, bud, or flower,
Bears various and most precious fruit,
That comes and goes in one short hour.
311.
My first is an adjective, short and dry,
Which an absence of moisture seems to imply,
Or, in reference to mind, that kind of wit,
Which is slack on the rein, and sharp on the bit
My second is a sort of hole, or den,
Unfit for the resort of timid men,
Whence once the righteous came safely out,
While the wicked were wholly put to rout.
My whole is an author of classic fame,
If you know the man, please tell me his name.
312. What poet do miners value most?
313. What poet is least distinguished for brevity?
314. Which of the English poets would be most likely to make a lion feel at home?
315. Why were the Amalekites never allowed to speak?
316. Which of the reptiles is a mathematician?
317. What Scripture character would have made a suitable husband for a tall laundress?
318. What two syllables of the marriage ceremony are most interesting to the priest?
319. What part of a house measures about two quarts?
320. When is a door not a door?
321. Why are ladies sitting on the stoop, like an unfinished house?
322. What stone opens and shuts at your convenience?
323.
Read see how me
Down will I love
And you love you
Up and you if
324. Why is a thing purchased like a shoe?
325. Why is a man who makes a wager of a cent, like a person recovering from illness?
326. Why is an unpaid bill like the moisture in the morning?
327. Why is a sanguinary epistle like a surgeon?